Ballenbaugh 1

The first Ballenbaugh in Yoknapatawpha is as colorful as the place that bears his name. Described in The Reivers as an "ancestryless giant," he arrived in the county "from nowhere" and by some means - the narrative implies a coercive one - took over the store and ferry run by a man named Wylie (72). Under his ownership, the place became a "roaring" one: a "grubbing station and saloon" for the wagon-drivers who passed through on the way to or from Memphis (72).